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658 SAMA
Since 1970 there has been considerable organized violence in Mindanao and
Sulu. What began as a series of isolated conflicts between local Muslim communities
and immigrant Christians over land titles in the Cotabato hinterlands
rapidly escalated into civil war. The situation was exacerbated by animosities
between Muslim and Christian that go back to the Spanish period and the days
of widespread Muslim piracy, by a sense among Muslims that martial law and
military intervention of the Philippine government was a loosely disguised attempt
to eradicate Islam and perhaps its followers and by the intervention of
foreign governments willing to supply the Muslim warriors with arms and moral
support.
With the burning of Jolo and the steady erosion of the Tausug military and
economic base, Tausug dominance in Sulu was finally brought to a close, capping
a decline that began over a century ago. The heavy fighting in the Yakan home
of Basilan turned thousands of this group into landless refugees on the Zamboanga
mainland, destroying the economic and political basis of their independence.
Other Sama groups of Mindanao and Sulu did not stay aloof from the conflict,
nor did they remain untouched by the destruction. Sama refugees numbered in
the tens of thousands, many of them moving into the already crowded Zamboanga
City area.
The mobility and adaptability of the maritime Sama have smoothed the way
for their geographical expansion and their survival through periods of war and
alien domination. The recent troubles in the southern Philippines constitute just
another chapter in that story as far as the Sama are concerned and probably not
the last, if history contains any predictive value for the future.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books
Benton, Nena Eslao. "Child-rearing Among the Samal of Manbul, Siasi, Sulu." In The
Muslim Filipinos: Their History, Society, and Contemporary Problems, edited by
Peter G. Gowing and Robert D. McAmis. Manila: Solidaridad Publishing House,
1974.
Casino, Eric S. "Jama Mapun." In Ethnic Groups of Insular Southeast Asia, edited by
Frank M. LeBar. Vol. 2. New Haven: Human Relations Area Files Press, 1975.
Chaffeee, Frederick H., et al. Area Handbook for the Philippines. The American University
FAS, DA Pam 550-72. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office,
1969.
Geoghegan, William H. "Balangingi." In Ethnic Groups of Insular Southeast Asia,
edited by Frank M. LeBar. Vol. 2. New Haven: Human Relations Area Files
Press, 1975.
LeBar, Frank M., ed. Ethnic Groups of Insular Southeast Asia. Vol. 2. New Haven:
Human Relations Area Files Press, 1975.
Majul, Cesar Adib. Muslims in the Philippines. Quezon City: University of the Philippines
Press, 1973.